ENROLLED
Senate Bill No. 303
(By Senators Manchin, Helmick, Craigo, Dittmar, Sharpe, Wagner,
Wooton, Kimble, Scott, Blatnik, Chafin, Wiedebusch and Yoder)
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[Passed March 9, 1996; to take effect October 1, 1996.]
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AN ACT to amend and reenact section ten, article six, chapter
thirty-three of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to standard
provisions in insurance policies.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section ten, article six, chapter thirty-three of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 6. THE INSURANCE POLICY.
§33-6-10. Standard provisions.
(a) Insurance contracts shall contain such standard provisions
as are required by the applicable provisions of this chapter
pertaining to contracts of particular kinds of insurance. The
commissioner may waive the required use of a particular standard
provision in a particular insurance policy form, if he finds such
provision unnecessary for the protection of the insured and inconsistent with the purposes of the policy, and the policy is
otherwise approved by him.
(b) No policy shall contain any provision inconsistent with or
contradictory to any standard provision used or required to be
used, but the commissioner may approve any substitute provision
which is, in his opinion, not less favorable in any particular to
the insured or beneficiary than the standard provisions or optional
standard provisions, otherwise required. This section shall not
apply to the standard fire insurance policy.
(c) On or after the first day of October, one thousand nine
hundred ninety-six, the insurer shall provide to all prospective
purchasers of individual life insurance policies with a face value
of twenty-five thousand dollars or less, a notice upon a form
prescribed by the commissioner to such prospective policyholder
that the total premiums paid by the purchaser at some point in the
future may exceed the death benefit. For purposes of calculating
whether or at what point premiums paid by the policyholder will
exceed the death benefit, the insurer shall use the annual premium
for the life insurance death benefit. All other costs, including,
but not limited to, costs for benefits provided pursuant to a
policy rider, and costs associated with the exercise of any option
permitted by the policy, shall be excluded from the calculation.
This notice shall be provided at the time of delivery of the
policy. This subsection does not apply to mass market life
insurance products as defined in section thirty-five of this article, to life insurance policies used exclusively to fund
preneed burial contracts under article fourteen, chapter
forty-seven of this code or to life insurance policies for which
the total premiums paid by the purchaser will not at any time
exceed the death benefit.